Last night, I had dinner with a very good college friend Charmy and her sister Julienne. Haven't seen Charmy for the longest time because she was in the US for the past couple of months. Anyway, she's been back for several weeks now but with all the travel that I've been having, last night was the only time we got to meet and catch up on things since she got back.
I learned that her sister Julienne is an incoming Biology student at UP Manila, the very same UP campus Charmy and I went to not too long ago. I was excited for Julienne because I remember how fun my UP days were, but I almost fell off my seat when I found out that the cost of one semester is now P25,000. Yes, you read that right. And yes, that's in UP. I couldn't believe it.
When I left the University in 2000, I was only paying a quarter for a semester. P25K was already good for two years back then. I am really shocked at how expensive the tuition fee is now. Isn't UP supposed to be subsidized? What happened?
Anyway, here's an interesting article I found on fellow Peyups student and friend Richmond.
The cost of college education: Do the math; weep and wonder
Linda Bolido
Philippine Daily Inquirer
May 26, 2008
MANILA, Philippines—With an income of P148,000 a year (according to
2003 data of the National Statistics Office), an average Filipino
family will not have enough money for food and will be unable to pay
rent (if it does not own its place of residence) even if just one
child enrolls in any of the country's top three universities this
school year.
Definitely, sending a second child to the same school is out of the
question.
Enrollment in several other major institutions, though not as
expensive, will still mean drastic cutbacks on budgets for food,
shelter and other essentials.
Data gathered by Inquirer Research from school accounting, admissions
and registrars' offices, showed that average Filipino families would
have to set aside from a third to half of their annual incomes if they
want to send a child to one of Metro Manila's better known schools,
with the exception of the state-owned Polytechnic University of the
Philippines (PUP).
Freshmen entering the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) will
be charged P2,400 per unit and pay a total of P124,800 for two
semesters with a full load of 26 units per term.
De la Salle University (DLSU), which has a trimester calendar, has an
average unit cost of P2,045.33. A freshman enrolled for the whole year
and taking the full 18-unit load each term will have to pay about
P110,447.82.
The Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) has a higher per unit cost than
UA&P and DLSU at P2,517.03. But because one school year is only two
semesters and a full load is only 18 units, the annual fee for a
freshman only comes up to P90,613.
Higher UP rate
The state-funded University of the Philippines (UP) system, which
recently raised its fees to P1,000 per unit amid protests from both
students and faculty, will cost a freshman P36,000 in one two-semester
year with a full load of 18 units per term.
Though that is almost one-fourth of an average family's annual income,
the amount is only about 28 percent of the UA&P annual fee.
This means a UP student can almost pay four years' tuition in the
state university with just one year of UA&P tuition.
The DLSU one-year tuition will pay for about three years at UP while
Ateneo's fee is equivalent to about two years and a half at the state
university.
The UP is now more expensive than San Sebastian College, which charges
P786 per unit or P33,012 per two-semester year of 21 units each and
College of the Holy Spirit (Manila) at P903.91 per unit or P32,540 per
two-semester year of 18 units each.
PUP, like the UP often in the forefront of student activism, charges
an almost unbelievable P12 per unit, for a total two-semester annual
fee, at 21 units per term, of only P504. Talk of a true school for the
masa!
It was not immediately known how the school is able to keep its
student population manageable but it has probably adopted stringent
entrance requirements.
Of the 21 schools surveyed by Inquirer Research, three have per unit
costs exceeding P2,000 and eight have rates over P1,000. Annual fees,
with the exception of UA&P and DLSU, total less than P100,000 though
they range from PUP's very low P504 to ADMU's P90,613.20.
Among the schools with large populations, the University of the East,
reputedly the institution with the most number of students, charges
P1,040 per unit for a total two-semester annual fee of P47,840, at 23
units per term.
Far Eastern University charges P1,100 per unit or a total of P55,000 a
year for two semesters at 25 units per term. The University of Santo
Tomas, at P1,072.90 per unit, charges P45,061.80 for a two-semester
year at 21 units per term.
Four percent share
According to NSO data as of 1997, education accounted for a little
less than four percent of an average family's annual expenditure. This
means, if the average annual income is P148,000, it would set aside,
strictly speaking, less than P6,000 a year for education.
Needless to say, food eats up (no pun intended) half of an average
family's income although it appears some belt-tightening had also to
be effected in 1997. NSO data showed that in 1988, food accounted for
50.7 percent of household expenditures. By 1997 this was down to 44.2
percent, a drop of more than six percent.
This was probably because housing costs increased over the same
period—from 12.8 percent of a family's budget in 1988 to 15.3 percent
in 1997. What little remained went into fuel, electricity, water,
clothing, transportation, medical care and other essentials. Saving is
definitely an alien concept to a family with this kind of budget.
How the average Filipino family is able to send not just one but two
or more children to school, pay for food and shelter, is probably not
just the result of prudent budgeting but also the assistance of both
formal and informal institutions like banks, money lenders and
generous relatives. With Kate Pedroso, Inquirer Research
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